Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Introducing the BASA's

I already emailed a couple of people about this, so I might as well post it here:

I just recently started blogging about American soccer, partially because I'm a big fan and I feel I can contribute something, but also because there aren't many blogs on the subject. I wanted to do something that would generate excitement for our little community. I am proud to announce the first ever BASA's. What does that stand for?

BlogosphereAmericanSoccerAwards

It's simple. After the final MLS regular season game is played (Sunday 10/16), I will send an email to a number of American soccer bloggers, and you will vote on a bunch of year end awards (MVP, Rookie of the Year, Best XI, etc.).

Rules:

1. The deadline for voting will be when the first playoff game kicks off. So you'll have about 5 days to think it over, although I doubt anyone will need that much time.

2. I'm planning on using a baseball style method of voting: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place votes for each category.

3. Only one ballot per blog, no matter how many people write for it.

4. Must be an active blog which deals with American soccer on a regular basis.

I will then tally up the results and post them, one award per day.

I think it will be interesting to see how our opinions compare to the actual MLS awards. Hopefully this will get bigger over the years, and all of us can look back and say we were part of the first edition. I'm also planning to do this at the end of the Euro season in May, for YA's. I know the end of the MLS season is two months away, but I just wanted to let everyone know about my idea now.

There are not many American soccer bloggers, so there won't be a ton of people voting. This will give us all something to write about, plus give us added attention. Of course, I'll be sure to post about it on Bigsoccer.

Here is a list of blogs that have been around for a little while and whom I definitely want to be a part of this:

Climbing the Ladder (duh)du NordFootballs Are Round!Footcer SocblogMaradawgaRamblings of a Soccer JunkyWe Call It Soccer

There are a few others who have just started and hopefully will still be active at the end of the season. If so, they are more than welcome to participate. If you would like to be a part of this, please send me your email address so I can have them ready when the season ends. Also feel free to give me any feedback or suggest blogs that I'm forgetting.